"You picked me wrong," I yelled wildly. "You don't get heroes from where I came from. Like Durach said—he's more my kind. We could be like gods. Immortal—how can I—"
I felt mind-energy, paraphysical power, flow into me from Reeta and Carleth. They told me something, a word—extratemporal—new perception that could let me see things that would happen! Space factors disappeared, for one terrible second. The factor of future time faded—and I could see!
I felt it. Hot and horrible and final. A flash of future knowledge. I saw Earth disappear into a great white flame. And where it had been was a white hot nova in black space.
Horror rose like a volcano of madness, and a sheet of pain seemed to split my head wide open.
"No," I felt Durach's roaring thought. "No, Berton! They're giving you a false impression. That's a probability variant of Earth's future. They've let you see the Earth destroyed—but it's a different variant than what will happen if you join us. By destroying the Third Plane my way, we can save Fourth Stage reality from destruction—but their way—all will be destroyed!"
"It's your choice," Reeta said. "We have only a few flashes of time left, and then it won't matter anymore."
Maybe I didn't make any decision, not consciously. The pressure was too much for me. I had to do something, anything. I heard myself screaming as I pressed the trigger of the gun.
Durach fell beneath its power beam. It sprayed and burned and roared in the great room. He came around the desk as I turned; his white face had turned gray with a coat of wet over it. I felt the sudden complete effort within all of them as they tried to get me.
Freaks. But there wasn't much physical difference between these people and the average looking group. It was the inside of them that was different. Differences in metabolism, neural structure, conscious awareness ... a lot more....
Durach and the others were surging in toward me. Walls of mind-energy throbbed around me. Their faces were twisted with hate and fear.